I'm not sure why everyone assumes that EU characters can't be used because it will be too confusing to non-EU fans. Everyone survived the prequels just fine with basically all new characters. I remember leaning over to my husband in the theater and saying, "who the hell is Grievous?", but I survived just fine. I'm sure most movie patrons will suspect that the characters continued to live their lives between episodes 6 and 7, and that stuff happened I think it would be more strange if the movies picked up with Luke, Leia, and Han with no marriages, no kids, nothing.

I don't want to sound like a jerk, but I honestly can't read all 141 pages to see if this question was answered. Please forgive me if it was:

In the George Lucas era of EU, there were rules about what characters and stories you could and couldn't write about. Do you think this will still exist? Or is it out the window? If it does exist? Who's making the rules?

They will, and debatably already are, honor his wishes as a consulting producer, but the difference now is that legally they don't have to. A couple years down the line, when Lucas has other things going on, will be a whole different story.

You wouldn't even really need the crawl to say anything about Mara at all. That could come up in the course of the movie, mentioned in passing all like "since my Jedi mom died I've been working really hard at preserving her memory" or whatever. Or Luke "Ben, since your mother died I've been blah blah blah."

^This. Thank you. I've felt like this was the most organic solution to Mara's absence since first hearing about this. Just discuss her in the affectionate past-tense, acknowledging how much she meant/means to Luke and Ben without needing to get bogged down in extraneous detail. Exposition is not a language people naturally speak, anyway. Maybe tell a short, funny story of something they did together. But if people really need more than that, well...they can crack open a book like the rest of us.

Yeah, this. I've been saying this exact same thing for awhile now.

Explaining anything in the opening synopsis is a big no-no. It'd be like them explaining who Luke's parents were in the synopsis of ANH. Or the synopsis of RotS explaining that Anakin Skywalker had an apprentice for the past severral years...but where is she now? Etc. The synopsis can only explain what is needed for the audience to know what is happening NOW as the story begins. I don't think it will matter to the general audience who Ben's mother is, only that Luke is his father, as long as the plot/story/action is good. There can be references and teasers, of course....like this: "Allana, your grandmother was a great Jedi Knight who fought in the Vong wars..." Or, Ben and Luke pause to regard a statue of Mara in the main hall of the Jedi temple. That sort of thing. Also, D/LFL WANTS new general audience members to go out and buy the latest Visual Guide if they're curious....that's the demographic the Visual Guides are made for, after all. They cerrtainly don't make 'em for us crazy uber-fans whho know everything about Star Wars, anyway.

The fact that the term 'cinematic canon' popped recently (I believe within TOS material regarding the CWAS) makes me wonder if indeed we're moving away from the old Holocron canon to something like Marvel (in regards to the movies and the comics and how they are handled) like I've been suggesting... but I also realize that's fairly flimsy speculation coupled with a desire to be right.

Completely unrelated, having gone to DisneyWorld for my birthday recently, Disney would have to be the worst-run company ever if they don't take this opportunity to convert part of Hollywood Studios to a whole Star Wars area centered on StarTours.

I just took "cinematic canon" as their new way of saying "G-canon", since it isn't George himself now, simply the movies.

"R2-D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer." Seriously, until you see something on StarWars.com, you should probably chalk it up to internet rumor and go on with your life. Still, it *would* be nice if it were true..."

"R2-D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer." Seriously, until you see something on StarWars.com, you should probably chalk it up to internet rumor and go on with your life. Still, it *would* be nice if it were true..."

Completely unrelated, having gone to DisneyWorld for my birthday recently, Disney would have to be the worst-run company ever if they don't take this opportunity to convert part of Hollywood Studios to a whole Star Wars area centered on StarTours.

Maybe. But I think they might opt to build a new Star Wars ride/attraction in Tomorrow Land at Magic Kingdom instead. Who knows. Funny enough, one of the first things that came to mind when this deal came to light was new Star Wars rides at DW.

Well, that's only 18 more issues, which is a year and a half, probably at least a year or so before VII comes out. And probably still within the frame of DH's current contract, whether or not it gets renewed.

Well, that's only 18 more issues, which is a year and a half, probably at least a year or so before VII comes out. And probably still within the frame of DH's current contract, whether or not it gets renewed.

Asked whether members of the original Star Wars cast will appear in Episode VII and if he called them before the deal closed to keep them informed, Lucas says, “We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison—or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation. So I called them to say, ‘Look, this is what’s going on.’ ” He pauses. “Maybe I’m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them.” Then he adds: “I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.”